For a while, the cameras were always on Allen Daniels. A star high-school football player at Homewood-Flossmoor, he earned a scholarship to Georgia Tech before transferring to Hampton to

play out the last three years. While at Hampton, he first picked up a camera.

“Photography has always been a passion for me, and it’s really made me a better person and a better man,” he said. “Because you’re capturing a moment in time, a life-changing event, and when you hold it in your hand, you can point to something you’ve done and have a smile on your face.”

Nowadays, Daniel, 23, who never seems to be without a smile, often finds himself on the other side of the device, onstage shooting with local rap group Treated Crew and rapper Rockie Fresh, as well as working with Kendrick Lamar.

“Photography has really opened a lot of doors for me and taught me a lot about myself that I didn’t know,” Daniels said.

For all the doors that have opened in the year since he graduated from college, Daniels isn’t satisfied just yet.

“I want to be considered one of the best photographers of all time,” he said. “I want to be legendary, and I won’t settle for less, so every day I push myself.”

                                                      Jake Krzeczowksi is a locally based free-lance writer. Follow him on Twittter:@jakekrez.